A number of British developers who coded games in the 1980s for the 8-bit ZX Spectrum home computer have been complaining about Elite Systems Ltd, alleging it had not made royalty payments due to them.

The Lichfield, England-based outfit is run by Steve Wilcox, who describes himself as a producer for the firm, which - according to its most recent Companies House records - was saddled with debt owed to creditors to the tune of £81,388 for the year ended September 2012.

Wilcox has been raising money, via a Kickstarter campaign, to build funds for a Bluetooth ZX Spectrum keyboard.

At the time of writing, he had pulled in £65,430 from 830 backers*. However, some people are demanding a refund after hearing concerns expressed by a handful of developers who claim not to have received a single penny of royalties from Wilcox.

It's understood that Wilcox, 44, approached ZX Spectrum game coders to ink contracts with them on a non-exclusive basis to pay licences in order to use their software.

Dynamite Dan I & II developer Rod Bowkett told The Register that he had no response from Wilcox since he agreed to the licence deal. Royalties have gone unpaid for successive quarters, he claimed.

Bowkett added that the royalties themselves amounted to "peanuts" but alleged that Wilcox was in breach of contract for failing to make the payments.